Arriva London paints a bus Platinum to celebrate 1,000 staff giving to 160 charities every Pay day through Payroll Giving

Taking the message out on route 141

When Arriva London started their Payroll Giving promotional program in 2014, encouraging more staff to get involved with giving to charity through the Payroll Giving scheme, they didn’t realise how welcoming the staff would be to the idea, and how generous the Payroll Givers would be.

In the first year the Charities Aid Foundation recognised the large uptake of the scheme, where fifteen percent of staff members supported their charities, by awarding the company a Gold award for their achievement.

Encouraged by this, and wanting to improve on this level, the company again promoted the scheme with the “It’s easy to give with Payroll Giving, you’re colleagues do it every day” theme, and were delighted earlier this year to receive the Platinum award for their achievements, where now twenty percent of staff support their charities through the scheme..

Arriva London's accident repair centre paint the bus

Knowing that the awards are given annually, and that the next target is to maintain the Platinum level, it was decided the company would paint one of its red buses Platinum to celebrate that 1,000 staff give to 160 charities every pay day.

After the painting was completed by Arriva London’s accident repair centre, the bus was decorated with the celebration message, together with over seventy logos of the many charities that are supported, and the prestigious Platinum Award logo.

Charity logos applied

The Platinum bus HV 64, is now back in service on route 141 from Palmers Green to London Bridge. Anton, the first driver to drive the Platinum bus, chosen as he is one of the Payroll Givers, was delighted to have been given the role said;-

“When I found out that I was one of the 1,000 people supporting 160 charities, it touched my heart. I support Great Ormond Street Hospital and the WWF. Great Ormond Street because they saved my son’s life from an asthmatic illness, and the WWF because I love animals.

Anton, proud to drive the Platinum bus

I feel privileged because I am the first driver to drive the Platinum bus and that’s really special.”

The campaign has been promoted with Payroll Giving in Action through road shows at each of the company’s seventeen London garages, together with a poster and video campaign, telling givers’ stories and also responses from the charities that are the recipients.

The Platinum bus message

All staff in the scheme are entered into a company quarterly draw which gives four winners each a cheque from Arriva London for £250 for their chosen charity, and all givers are also entered into a ballot, giving them the chance to be one of seventy participants in Arriva London’s 2016 Lord Mayor’s Show entry on November 12th, which will include the Platinum bus and the Arriva London’s Heritage Routemaster open topper RMC 1464. We will be keeping you up to date with the bus’s progress and how the scheme is going, so watch this space for further updates.

The introduction of all new Hybrid vehicles on route 249, which Arriva London starts operating this Saturday, underlines one of our key brand values - ‘Great customer experience - We keep our customers happy every day’.